Importance

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Abstract

An interactive terminal comprises a processor, a local data store connected to the processor, a character generator responsive to processor control for generating a television signal output to an associated television receiver, a key pad or remote control for inputting information to the processor, and a power supply input. The terminal is coupled, via 2-way RF communications, to a central location designated as the system manager, where the terminal is accessed by polling for monitoring and servicing terminal user requests. The interactive terminal has a local storage capacity for storing a number of character screen commands, accessed from a central data base at the system manager, for use in generating prompting screens displayed on the television receiver. In use, a user may call for a variety of services by operating the input keys of the key pad to cause a prompting screen to be displayed. Screen commands are stored at the terminal according to an assigned priority. The stored screen commands also include pointers which are used by the terminal processor to prefetch screens which will likely follow the current screen in a decision tree structure manner. Thus, screens may be prefetched from the central data base and downloaded for storage at the terminal so that they are available for display if and when called for. If a particular branch of a decision tree is not selected, screens associated with the unselected branch are deleted from terminal memory as needed to make room for new screens. The terminal memory is also controlled so that data is swapped in and out of memory based on its relative priority.

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First Claim